Is being nearsighted genetic?
No one knows for sure exactly what causes nearsightedness. But there’s ample evidence that inherited characteristics play a significant role. As the name implies, nearsighted people can see clearly up close but have difficulty seeing objects that are farther away. Also called myopia, nearsightedness is a refractive error, not an eye disease. Generally, nearsightedness occurs because the eyeball grows too long, so light doesn’t come to a clear focus on the retina. But why this happens to some people and not others are still not fully understood. Recently, researchers gathered data from more than 250,000 individuals from Europe, Asia and North America to evaluate the influence of genetics on nearsightedness. From this study, they were able to identify 161 genetic factors associated with myopia, most of which were previously unknown. And while each of these myopia-prone genes has only a small influence on the risk of becoming nearsighted, individuals who carry a large number of them have up to 10 times the risk of nearsightedness compared with others who don't have them.
